Business Is Not As Usual This Week

Until this gets better, business as usual is cancelled. Life is not cancelled, but how some people can still take up space in the digital sphere with swipe up to links for more and more stuff and their 39th Fashion Nova outfit this week, is beyond me.

Written by Valerie Emanuel, Booking Director, Role Models Management

As a Black and Latino business owner, I see the world much differently from the rest of my team. We vary in ethnicity, nationality and socio-economic background, but I am the only person of color. When I woke up to Monday morning to emails about signing my clients up for a brand partnership and dating site, letting me know they would offer free services to my model clients, I felt hurt (also, weird). ‘Don’t you know you are emailing a person whose brother and father have been on the floor with a knee in their back?’ And then I stepped away, took a break and realized, no, they don’t know. They see me as a successful mother and entrepreneur and maybe that has even surpassed some people's perceptions about my Black experience. Sure, I love Soho House and rep Malibu, but as much as I love that town I don’t tell people about the fact that nearly every one of my friends and family members who visited me had the cops called on them just for coming to check on my mail or water my garden. Money, influence or my proximity to whiteness doesn’t change my Black experience.

I have been so busy and ignoring the news that I didn’t realize the storm that was brewing for those higher risk POC who could not work from home, people who have been laid off ingesting really scary news and seeing those around them get sick. People who have had different opportunities than me because of their location (the Black experience in big cities and on the West Coast is far different from that of Midwestern and Southern POC). Ahmaud’s story hit me hard, because I am that jogger. I have had people ask me if I'm lost or ask me my address while going out for air. I found it hard to answer emails the week Ahmaud’s video came out. I found it hard to get in deliverables on time. I found it hard to process my emotions on social media, and then just as I thought it had passed and justice was served to his killers, George Floyd was killed in front of all of our eyes. It reminded me of just how fragile life is for ALL of us but especially how fragile life is for Black men. I recently let out a confession on social media. When I got my sonogram and found out ‘It's a girl’ I had a sigh of relief. Happy that I would not give birth to someone with a target on their back. No one should have to feel this way about their unborn child. 

With all the success I have had and all of the hurdles my parents jumped through to get to this country, I just want to just be happy I get to exist here. Today I don’t feel this way and that's ok.  

I have realized we all need to hold space for those who are hurting right now, and yes, we need to hold off on posting anything on our socials that’s not related to social justice right now as it feels hurtful and insensitive to POC (I would love some at-home graduation or baby’s first steps photos though if your kids are also reaching those milestones - those are always welcome). 

This is the first time in my career I have ever told my team we needed to pause for our emotional health, and I hope we come out of this stronger because of it.

 




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